Post navigation

HS BASE: ECR gets the last word in wild 9-8 championship win over San Pedro

With the crowd on its feet, Justin Scovel saved the best for last, tripling in the tying run in the bottom of seventh inning, then scoring on a passed ball today afternoon to lift El Camino Real High of Woodland Hills to a 9-8 victory over San Pedro in the City Section baseball championship at Dodger Stadium.

“I could never imagine this. It’s amazing,” Scovel said. “There was tons of pressure, and I was pretty nervous. It was a great finish.”

There were five lead changes by the time the bottom of the seventh rolled around, and with two out and San Pedro ace John Mata (10-2) pitching, Scovel drilled a 3-2 offering deep to right-center for a triple – his second of the day — to score pinch-runner Jonathan Cohn and tie the score 8-8.

Then a pitch got away from catcher Dan Matienzo and rolled all the way to the backstop, and Scovel raced home for the winning run that set off a massive blue-and-white celebration.

“As soon as I saw the ball get past, my eyes got big and I thought, ‘Oh my god, we’re going to win this thing,'” Scovel said. “I’ve never run so hard in my life.”

Scovel, a senior batting in the No. 8 spot, entered with just 13 hits on the season but came through with his biggest performance on the grandest stage of all.

Scovel’s first triple came with the bases loaded in the fourth inning, and he finished 2 for 4 with four RBIs and two runs.

El Camino Real (19-11) also received a clutch performance from Jose Cardona (11-1), who pitched the final two innings without giving up a run and earned his third playoff win, including an eight-inning shutout Wednesday in a 3-0 victory at Banning in the semifinals.

As a hitter, Cardona came in with just four hits in 17 at-bats, but in a last-minute decision by coach Josh Lienhard, Cardona started at designated hitter in the No. 9 spot and went 2 for 3 with a double and an RBI.

“It feels amazing to win at Dodger Stadium. All the hard work all season, and it came down to this,” Cardona said. “I was ready to do whatever it took. No one gave up, not us and not San Pedro, and it was a great battle.

“We had a lot of confidence, and Justin worked hard all week and came through with the biggest hits of the game. He had a great game.”

A team from the San Fernando Valley has won the City title 18 years in a row – this is El Camino Real’s sixth championship since 1993 – and 36 times over the past 37 years dating back to 1973.

El Camino Real’s Chris Whitmer doubled and scored twice, Ivan Vela added a single, a run and an RBI, and Kyle Keppel walked twice, scored once and drove in a run.

San Pedro (24-6) totaled 13 hits but went quietly in the top of the seventh with Cardona striking out Dino Boskovich with a runner on second for the final out.

The ending was celebratory, but it was not a perfect season for El Camino Real, which lost four of its first five games and was 2-5 through the first two weeks. But over the past month, El Camino Real proved as good as anyone, finishing with 10 wins over the final 11 games, outscoring three playoff opponents 36-1 to make it to Dodger Stadium.

“Our team just kept working and kept practicing hard,” Cardona said. “I knew if we kept working hard that we would eventually come out on top.”

Scovel started the season on the bench before eventually working his way into the lineup as the starting third baseman.

“It was a tough beginning, a tough start, but it all worked out,” Scovel said.

Meta

Comments Policy

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@langnews.com.